America:

"We have George Bush, Stevie Wonder, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash."

Serbia:

"We have Vojislav Koštunica, no wonder, no hope and no cash."

"Today, the concept of business is to make money. Making money is the name of the business. And profit maximization is the mission of business. And I'm saying this is very narrow interpretation of human being. Human beings are much bigger than just making money. So I said, to be true to the human nature, we should include at least one more type of business, business to do good to people, without an expectation of making any personal gain out of it."

Mohammad Yunus

By Changing Your Thinking,
You change your beliefs;

When you change your beliefs,
You change your expectations;

When you change your expectations,
You change your attitude;

When you change your attitude,
You change your behavior;

When you change your behavior,
You change your performance;

When you change your performance;
You Change Your Life!

- Author Unknown

EASTERN EUROPE

Belgrade: A capital city springs to life in Serbia

The city's past is visible in bombed-out buildings left unrepaired, but the vibe is hip, not tragic, and travelers are trickling back.

By Michael Levitin, Special to The Los Angeles Times
September 18, 2007

More at http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-tr-belgrade23sep23?page=1

another great guy from the golden generation of Yugoslav and Serbian basketball (Djordjevic, Paspalj, Bodiroga, Savic... to name a few...) has done his farewell to basketball and moved on...

Some of them become coaches, some managers, some even go to politics, but Vlade decided to simply continue what he was doing already - to help people in need... this time to dedicate all his time to this though...

His friends from all over the world promised to help, and came to Belgrade to prove it... On photos above you can see some of them - Chris Webber (claimed himself to be first Serbian black dude - Kristijan Veberovic :P), Glen Rice, Scott Pollard...

Thank you Vlade!

And thank god for modern technologies... How would I explain my kids what a great guy he is, if there was no video? :)

text below is from B92.net
---------------------------------

Divac celebrates end of professional career

23 September 2007 | 11:47 | Source: Beta

BELGRADE -- Vlade Divac has celebrated his official retirement from professional basketball in front of 10,000 fans in Belgrade.

Vlade Divac bids farewell to his fans (Tanjug)

“I wish to thank you for a huge and selfless support you have been giving me throughout my basketball career that began here in Serbia and now ends here as well,” Divac told the crowd yesterday from a concert stage placed outside the National Parliament building.
The former member of Serbia’s national basketball team and sixteen-year NBA veteran has launched the “You Can Too” campaign, set to last four months, aimed at raising funds and providing housing for refugees and displaced persons in Serbia.
“Today , the most important match of my life begins. With your help, the biggest and best team is looking to score a vital victory and help those deprived of their land, home, and friends who are now living in conditions unworthy of human beings,” said Divac.
The farewell ceremony was attended by his former national team fellow players Aleksandar Đorđević, Predrag Danilović, Zoran Savić and Žarko Paspalj.
Divac’s NBA co-players, including Chris Webber, Scott Pollard and Glen Rice came to support their colleague, along with Divac’s former coaches Dušan Ivković, Duško Vujošević and Gregg Popovich.
“Vlade always has friends by his side. I will do my best to help him raise the money for the cause and I hope he will win this game as well,” Aleksandar Đorđević said.
Webber also addressed the crowd, saying "good evening" in Serbian.
“Vlade Divac has a heart of gold apart from being a great player. He is the best man I have ever met,” Webber said.
The concert held in his honor featured performances of numerous bands and artists form Serbia and abroad, including Van Gogh, Aleksandra Kovač, Darko Rundek, Esma Redžepova, Šaban Bajramović, and special guests African artists Mori Cante and Raste.
A short movie was played from a huge screen in which a score of Divac’s friends and colleagues praised his efforts and career, including NBA stars Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Bobby Jackson, Yao Ming, coach Phil Jackson, rapper Snoop Dogg, Red Hot Chili Peppers, actor Billy Crystal and many others.
On Sunday, Divac travels to his hometown of Prijepolje to officially open the Vlade Divac Museum, an exhibition that chronicles a basketball career that began in the small southern town when he was a tall 12-year-old boy dwarfing his teachers, and eventually ended in the NBA.
The museum will display European jerseys and basketball-related equipment; practice gear and official NBA uniforms from the Los Angeles Lakers, Charlotte Hornets, and Sacramento Kings, medals won in international competitions, newspaper and magazine articles from all over the world; game footage, photos, letters from fans and children, and a special section dedicated to his humanitarian efforts.
“My goal for the museum is to show young people today that you don’t have to be born in a big city to become successful,” said Divac.
“Hard work, confidence, and respect are the keys to building a life and thriving professionally. I hope the museum illustrates this message and that the children in Prijepolje learn from it.”

Serbia is in the World Group of Davis Cup after 20 years!!!

What an atmosphere in Belgrade Arena these 3 days! 20.000 people, drummers, constant cheering and shouting... surprisingly, all in good manner (as we are not used to tennis, but rather football and basketball cheering)...

It was so cool to be in the Arena today when Djokovic won the match for 3:1 in wins and got us into the World Group... So cool to feel the eruption of happiness around me... awesome!

Check out some of the moments from the 2nd day... Will link couple more from today, as soon as anyone uploads them to youtube...

 

as the writer of the original post wrote in his piece - this had to pop-up sooner or later :)

How many times have I heard praises over Serbian women from fellow aiesecers and friends from all over the world that have visited Serbia? Jeez, who counts...

Or even when I'm abroad - people asking me if it's true that we have so many beautiful girls, asking how the hell is that possible and generally being envious that I've been born there (lol!). Some guys even asked me to find them internships here, so that they can spend a nice summer over here (and perhaps get married hehe)...

Anyhow, all the guys here are fully aware of this fact, especially those that have traveled a bit... And wouldn't be happy if they had to move to another country (not because we think there aren't beautiful girls everywhere, but the percentage here is simply remarkable...). Except maybe to Argentina, since they are quite good with this ratio too, plus girls there are latinas :)

And sure you'll hear all the guys talking about this all the time... But when you hear/read traditionally jealous women :) praising this particular phenomenon (among other), then it really becomes news... the author of the text below linked 2 nice articles there, to prove this... And I`m adding a link to a nice gallery of every-day girls in Belgrade, so...

Enjoy!

http://www.pbase.com/pavlec/belgrade_girls&page=all

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
text below cross-posted from: Belgrade 2.0: Serbian girls - hot or not?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------

This subject had to come up sooner or later, you know.
But I was hoping that something else will trigger it other than your usual drooling foreign guys impressions you see on net or hear from various sources: “Dude, they have the most beautiful girls there, I swear!” or “Man, Serbia is heaven on earth as for the girls are concerned!” or stuff like that.

No, I had to wait for at least a couple of women to mention it in order to conclude that there just might be something in all these drooling guys’ claims. And here they are:

Maggie Alderson, of Sydney Morning Herald :

“The whole thing was like some kind of genetic experiment. It was clearly just the national body shape.”

and Rosmary on her blog couple of days ago:

“If Tyra Banks saw an entire town of women like these while scouting for her America’s Next Top Model show, the top of her head would pop off. It would be too much to choose from, overwhelming.”

National body shape? Too much to choose from? Something is clearly going on here. Is it even possible to determine in one nation or in one region, say, that the women are, even generally speaking, better looking than somewhere else? Or is it just another stereotype? Well, even if it is, at least it’s a good kind of stereotype. I think. And what about us guys? Nobody mentions us, I guess we have to conclude that we are average joes. Oh well.

Maybe it’s just the way girls dress and the time they invest in dressing up. I don’t know what to think anymore, seriously. You?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

You May Be a Bit Antisocial...

Antisocial? That may be a bit of an understatement. You think rules are meant to be broken - and with gusto! Having no fear, you don't even think about consequences. But people love you anyway... you've got a boatload of charm.

I wish I was able to hate...

Everything would be so much easier...

But I'm not...

Or if I had a remote...

To switch my self off forever...

But I don't have it...

I wish I could forget 2 best years of my life...

I can't... nor I want to...

So what can I do?

I can write a song...

Apparently...

And I can idle...

Like a zombie...

Forever...

Lots of friends from abroad have either been making fun of me or asking questions about my purse/handbag/european carryall/gay bag/whatever you call it...
for most of the people, it is either a gay thing, or metrosexual, or simply a girl item...
And it seems that it is a kind of a cultural shock for visitors in Serbia... it strucks them that such a "homophobic nation" is cool with "gay items"... :)

well, even if we often use a name "pederusa" (gay-bag) for it, I don`t think anyone really finds it gay... it`s simply useful! no need to fill your pockets with all the stuff you usually carry around: cell phone(s), credit cards, cigarettes, IDs, money, pen, papers, usb stick, condoms etc... although, it is indeed a risk that if you lose it - you lose all the stuff :), but that never happened to me... yet... :)

anyways, there`s a nice blog about it at B92.net VIP blog - author is a foreigner living in Belgrade... read the comments too - some are really funny!

Jess, enjoy it - this post is for you anyways! :D

Pretty cool, huh? Imagine if you get bitten with this! :)

RAPEXTM is a new product that was developed to empower women to defend themselves against rapists. RAPEXTM is a device used by women to prevent rape and to identify the rapist. The RAPEXTM prototype was launched on 31 August 2005, at Kleinmond, Cape Province, South Africa.

more at www.rapestop.net

Jeez... Officially, it was 39C yesterday... However, this is temperature outside of the city center, where they measure it...
Check out the temperature in Belgrade`s main street yesterday...



Edit - another photo from another source... again Belgrade downtown yesterday at noon...

An amazing way of analyzing data of worlds` importance... Really an eye-opening presentation of how the world is developing and changing, as well as how today`s approach to reducing poverty is completely wrong!

More at www.ted.com

Interesting, there`s even a Serbian guy, Sasa Vucinic, that fought his way from owning the only independent media in Serbia in 1991 (www.b92.net) to starting a fund to help independent media in 17 countries of developing world and trying to rethink the fund-raising... Check him out at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/75

 

 

I decided to get back to blogging... Having more time that I need to kill and keep my brain busy, I thought it`s time to start blogging again...

As usual, it will be partly about my life, partly about world issues and partly about issues in Serbia...

Hopefully, I`ll write an update about me tonight...

Cheers!

and then a huge welcome in Belgrade...

so I`m back ;)

will be here for another 10 days or so to sum up my work and finish transition with my succesor...

last month was completely crazy... expect an update about it these days, as soon as I get some time to write (maybe even tonight).

This is my homecity... :(

--------------------------------

Fresh blast in Kosovo

26 February 2007 | 11:35 | Source: AP

PRIŠTINA -- Explosion damaged several vehicles belonging to OSCE on Monday in Peć, a police official said. No one was hurt.
The blast occurred around 3:30 a.m. and was caused by an explosive device - possibly a hand grenade - that shattered windows or caused other light damage to seven vehicles in the parking lot of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
Investigators were not certain whether the OSCE was the target of the attack, which occurred in a residential area in the city of Peć, some 80 kilometers west of Kosovo's capital, Priština, said regional police spokesman Avni Gjevukaj.
Two other vehicles that did not belong to the organization were damaged in the blast. There was no immediate comment from the OSCE mission in Kosovo.
Tensions in Kosovo are running high amid negotiations between the ethnic Albanians and Serbs over the disputed province's status.
Three U.N. vehicles were bombed in Priština a week ago. In other recent violence, two people were killed in clashes between police and ethnic Albanians protesting the U.N. proposal on Kosovo's final status.

By John Phillips
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 20, 2007

ROME -- Any attempt by the international community to deny Kosovo independence will set off "a new Balkan war," a senior Kosovar negotiator cautioned yesterday.
    Speaking as he prepared to take part in final talks between delegations from Kosovo and Serbia scheduled for today in Vienna, Austria, negotiator Ylber Hasa said Kosovars believe they already have made extensive compromises.

rest of the story at Washington Post

-----------------------------------------

I`m going home in a week... Hopefully not directly to war... :(

KLA claims responsibility for Priština blast

20 February 2007 | 09:59 -> 13:05 | Source: B92, FoNet, Beta, AP

PRIŠTINA -- Kosovo Liberation Army says it blew up three UN vehicles in Priština last night.

The scene of the explosion in Priština (FoNet)

The blast caused no injuries but raised tensions amid ongoing negotiations on Kosovo's future.
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) distributed a statement to the media by e-mail claiming to have set up the explosion. Kosovo Police Service is yet to determine the authenticity of the statement.
Kosovo Liberation Army , now a disbanded force that fought against Serb forces during the 1998-1999 conflict, said it had regrouped in order to "avenge the death of two protesters" during a recent demonstration in Priština, adding it would avenge "any future injustice" against its people.

more at b92.net.

I think I should create a label called "funny monuments in serbia" :)

-----------------

From The Times

February 17, 2007

Me Tarzan; you monument

BELGRADE A tiny Serbian hamlet on the border with Romania is planning to build a monument to Johnny Weissmuller, the late actor famed for his film role as Tarzan. Weissmuller, who won five Olympic swimming gold medals, was born in 1904 in the village of Medja, in the Banat region that straddles the two countries but which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Weissmuller, who became a Hollywood icon as Tarzan, died in 1984. (AFP)